Veteran House Democratic aides are sick over the insurance prices theyll pay under Obamacare, and theyre scrambling to find a cure.

In a shock to the system, the older staff in my office (folks over 59) have now found out their personal health insurance costs (even with the government contribution) have gone up 3-4 times what they were paying before, Minh Ta, chief of staff to Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), wrote to fellow Democratic chiefs of staff in an email message obtained by POLITICO. Simply unacceptable.

In the email, Ta noted that older congressional staffs may leave their jobs because of the change to their health insurance.

Under the Affordable Care Act, and federal regulations, many congressional staffers  designated as official aides  were forced to move out of the old heavily subsidized Federal Employees Health Benefits program and into the District of Columbias health insurance marketplace exchange. Others designated as unofficial were allowed to stay in the FEHB program. Managers had to choose whether aides were official or unofficial by Oct. 31, and Ta said that wasnt enough time to make an informed decision about who would benefit and who would lose out by going into the new system.

Moores office was one of those in which all staff were designated as official and pushed into the exchanges. That ended up being a problem for older staff, who werent accustomed to paying higher premiums because of their age.

But age is one of the few factors insurers can use to adjust prices under Obamacare  and older people will often pay much more than younger people.

For instance, the premiums for gold-level Aetna HMO plans in D.C. cost an average of $684.40 per month for a 55-year-old. A similar plan would cost an average of $287.11 for a 27-year-old. The gold-level CareFirst HMO plans have an average premium of $573.07 for a 55-year-old  more than double the $240.41 average for 27-year-olds. Thats before the federal employee contribution toward the premium.

In an interview with POLITICO, Ta emphasized that employees are not dissatisfied with the Affordable Care Act and that some younger staffers have seen their premiums fall. But, he noted, congressional aides are treated differently now than other federal employees, and he would like to be able to offer the best health insurance option available to his employees  even if that means some of them are covered under the old system and others jump into the exchanges.

He wrote in his email that he had asked Democratic staff on the House Administration Committee whether she could redesignate some of the aides on Moores payroll as nonofficial office staff so that they could avoid the exchange and keep their FEHB plans.

So far the answer is no, and that we have the opportunity next year to redesignate staff, Ta wrote. I am asking for a solution now though because I will lose staff in my office because of this snafu and I mentioned to payroll and House Admin[istration Committee] that it was unfair for our offices to make this designation without allowing our staff the ability [to] actually go on the DCshop to compare rates. I would have made a different decision on the designation of my older staff.

Ta concluded by asking other chiefs of staff to join him in petitioning the Administration Committee for an immediate fix. Glenn Rushing, chief of staff to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, quickly replied to the group that he would join the fight.

No, of course not - they're out there with pitchforks and torches as a part of a Christmas - sorry, "Holiday" - skit. And so the answer is to make things better for everybody in the country, right? Wrong. What they want to do is

...redesignate some of the aides on Moores payroll as nonofficial office staff so that they could avoid the exchange and keep their FEHB plans.

Hey, what happened to "If you like your plan you can keep it. Period."? What happened to fixing it for everybody instead of just Congressional staffers? What happened to sharing the burden?

many congressional staffers  designated as official aides  were forced to move out of the old heavily subsidized Federal Employees Health Benefits program and into the District of Columbias health insurance marketplace exchange.

By heavily subsidized they mean 70% of the premium is covered by the government for a choice of policies that mostly break down to an 80% /20% insurance/benificiary benefit. When the employees are move to the exchanges the government pays up to 75% for what ends up being the same cost breakdown with higher deductibles.

I wonder how many chiefs of staff are career federal employees. One would think if they aren't they could easily move to K street if the health coverage is so bad. They could also punch their boss in the face for not designating them as an employee that gets to keep their FEHB.

Why all this concern over a minuscule subset of the population? It's not as if the entire taxpaying populace of the country isn't facing the same or fearing it. They foisted this monstrosity and they should be subject to it too, not able to wheedle and whinge their way out of it.

I can and I do get my care from the VA, when I have a good year I use BC/BS and insure myself wife and kids. We paid $700 month in 2011 and it went up about 25% a year.

I’m amused but not surprised by the fact that everybody whether they are on the left or right are so surprised by how much health insurance costs.

Something that is overlooked here is that most Americans don’t know or care what the actual costs are.

This is a huge problem for any fiscal conservative. We can say cut spending but with the American medicare/welfare state existing as it does simple math says healthcare spending for baby boomers in the next 40 years will bankrupt the USA.

The longer this bill stays in law the stronger the cash for medical care market grows.

This bill mitigates having health insurance since the price of having it and paying for it have skyrocketed. It has gone from being a mainstream, middle-class thing to something that only the moneyed to have.

Drop insurance, folks. I will be doing so. It has lost it’s value. Having “insurance” that costs $4-5-800 a month with deductibles of $6-8-10,000 is no longer insurance.....it’s a scam. A tax. A way to bleed your checking account. They’ll come after your 401k later.

Cant understand that few know the difference between Democrat and Democratic.
A Republican is a member of the Republican Party.
A Democrat is a member of the Democrat (not Democratic) Party.
*******************************
Exactly the words I’ve been tempted to post for years!

Irritates the crap out of me when they are referred to as the Democratic Party!

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